Create Your Own Synth Tones

When your collection of effects pedals and stompboxes no longer excites you -- or your guitar -- check out the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer and give yourself the sound overhaul you deserve. With this advanced floor pedal, you can perform with more than 900 unique, customizable synth tones and guitar models.

A Hi-Tech Mecca for Synthesis Enthusiasts

Made up of two PCM synthesizers, the GR-55's triple-core engine makes this Roland guitar synth fast, versatile, and fun to play. The triple-core engine provides a wealth of virtual guitars, basses, amps, and synth voices, all of which may be accessed instantly with quick-access category buttons and foot pedals. The GR-55's expansive collection of unique sounds is ready to go for a variety of genres, in the studio or on stage.

Roland's pitch-detection technology adds an unrivaled touch of speed and accuracy to the guitar synthesizer, ensuring that it plays exactly what you want to play, when you want to play it. According to Roland, the COSM guitar-modeling engine needs zero detection time, allowing the GR-55 to respond instantly and exactly as you play, detecting pitch, velocity, and behavior faster than your synapses can tell your brain what just happened.

Play with Powerful Presets

If you're a "plug and play" type of musician who would rather start playing right out of the box than mess with programming and editing sounds, you will enjoy the many presets available on the GR-55. Dive right in to a collection of 270 ready-to-use presets, as well as 297 user presets, accessible with simple category buttons. There to kick off your noodle session or jam, the presets cover all popular genres, including pop and rock.

When you want to delve deeper into the GR-55's sounds, check out the EZ Edit function, which makes it "EZ" to customize sounds and make them your own. Other features that make the synth easy to use include a large LCD, a number of controllable parameters, and USB connectivity. Use the two USB ports -- one on the rear panel and one on the side -- for MIDI communication or to exchange audio files and upload samples or effects. On the GR-55, your feet control USB audio playback, leaving your hands free to play your guitar.

If you have additional warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer at 323-890-3700

Product Description

The Roland GR-55 is a revolution in guitar synthesis, with features never before available in any guitar processor. In terms of speed, it's the fastest ever. It's also the most accurate, thanks to recently developed pitch-detection technology. As for sound, the triple-core generator houses a world-class array of virtual guitars, basses, amps, and synth voices, enabling tones and textures that have never been heard before. Onstage or in the studio, you can instantly access the GR-55's huge library of ready-to-use sounds, from pop to rock and beyond, with quick-access category buttons.

Features

- A revolutionary fusion of guitar synthesis and powerful COSM(r) guitar modeling
- Up to four sound sources at a time: two PCM synth tones, plus COSM guitar modeling and normal guitar input
- Easy to use and easy to play with hundreds of great, ready-to-use sounds for rock or pop guitarists
- Advanced Roland technology provides superb sound quality and lightning-fast processing
- Over 900 of Roland's fully editable PCM sounds, including pianos, organs, strings, vintage synths, and much more
- COSM guitar and amp modeling
- Two types of multi-effects engines, plus global reverb, chorus, and delay effects, and an onboard looper
- Built-in USB audio player with foot control
- Available with or without GK-3 Divided Pickup

Lightning-Fast Tracking

Thanks to Roland's decades of research and dedication to guitar synthesizers and powerful pitch detection technology, the GR-55 is far and away the fastest guitar synth ever. Furthermore, the COSM guitar-modeling engine needs zero detection time, allowing the GR-55 to respond instantly and exactly as you play. The GR-55 detects pitch, velocity, and behavior for unprecedented response to your performance.

Instant Gratification

Get ready to rock...and fast! The GR-55 puts you instantly in touch with a huge library of amazing sounds, no editing required. The onboard lineup of ready-to-use presets (270, plus 297 user) takes the pain out of the process, with simple category buttons for finding the perfect sound fast. Choose from hundreds of great presets for pop, rock, and beyond, and kick-start your song or jam with unique, powerful sounds that will turn heads and raise fists.

Easy to Use

If you're just beginning your journey into the world of technology, fear not. The GR-55 is powerful yet extremely friendly. For customizing sounds, the EZ Edit feature (made famous in the GT-10) and large LCD takes the guesswork out of the process. And for those who want to go deep, the GR-55 offers huge array of controllable parameters.

USB Connectivity

The GR-55 conveniently bridges the guitarist to the desktop music production world with its two USB ports. The rear-panel port can be used one for MIDI/Audio data communication; the side-panel port is dedicated to real-time playback of audio files from a USB memory device (sold separately). The GR-55 provides foot control of USB audio playback so your hands never need to leave the guitar.

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This review has been selected by our experts as particularly helpful.
"We broke up, but we are together again at last!"

Sound:
Let me start by saying that this is the second time I bought this unit. The first time I sold it because I needed money and because I had only one gripe with the unit. The problem was that I missed using my guitar in regards to volumes, feel and also the whammy bar. With the pickup system on the Gr-55 I would dive bomb and hit the pickup and the wail would just end. Also, even though the guitar models,amps,pedal effects etc are pretty good, they did not have the feel and complete sound I was akin to...those two reasons are why I sold it.
Then I realized after a few gigs of playing out without the GR-55 that I really missed it. The reason I had to get it back is that the synth sounds on this thing are nothing short of awe inspiring. Add to that with the proper adjustment of the pickup and calibration menu (which will take some time to get right) the tracking is phenomenal compared to past relics. I use the piano,sax,harmonica,church bell, and other cool synth pads and bass effects that add a whole new dimension to our sound and the expression on peoples faces in the crowd add joy to having this gem. One more thing that I really missed was the thumb drive plug in which I utilze to its full potential by putting samples on it and adding them to our songs. For instance we play Children of the Grave by Sabbath and when it gets to the bridge I trigger Vincent Price doing the Thriller speech over the juggernaught sounding drums and guitar. There are so many things you can do with this great sounding unit that I can say literally I can't part with it.
Feature:
Like I said the USB thumb drive adds a great dimension to this unit, also it is great to load guitar backing tracks to the drive and then jam with sounds on the GR-55; it's like having the e-band and a synth in one! The addition of having two PCMS playing at once or controlling them in one patch with or without the guitar is great too. The only thing that I find this unit lacks is an XLR output and a dedicated guitar input to use the moldeled guitar tones to have a more authentic guitar feel and tone, but this is a synth unit so I have accepted that and bought the Eleven Rack to work that end of the spectrum and together they are the shiznit.
Ease of Use:
It does take some time to understand the setup of custom sounds as you will find that you may have artiufacts from the preset that was installed if you do not go through everything and set it exactly as you want it. But, the presets are also a great place to start to get inspiration to build your sound and keep the paramaters of the patch. Just expect to take some time getting used to the interface and jumping back and forth through menus quite often. I have not tried the librian so I don't know if that is an easier alternative, but all in all I could not think of a btter way of making the unit more user friendly.
Quality:
I did have an issue with the first units GK-3 pickup on the A pickup where it would be faint at times and also there is a screw that hides the wires to the GK-3 that came out on the first one and it was lost. The second unit had the same problem with the screw, so I used some locktite to take care of that. Besides those two issues it is built strong and holds up well for live use.
Value:
I think this is a great value for everything you get. So much so that I bought it again even after losing money on the sale of the first one
Manufacturer Support:
N/A

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"Gotta get it, gotta get it!!! I GOT IT! "

Overall:
I purchased the Roland VG-99 a few years ago, and hands down, it's a great piece of guitar modeling equipment, though very expensive! The VG-99 models two voice outputs which is awesome to say the least. But where the VG-99 stops, the GR-55, for about half the price does all of the two voice modeling the VG-99 does, but goes way further by adding two more additional voices which are based on keyboard and synth sounds - over 900 of them. Just think, you can have voice 1 doing a concert piano, voice 2 doing background strings, voice 3 doing a COSM guitar sounding like an electric12-string, and voice 4 using you guitar's normal pickups - with built-in effects and distortion. All or any combination of the 900 instruments plus all of the guitar modeling capability of the VG-99. The GR-55's interface is about 10 times easier to understand and begin using than the VG-99. BTW, the 900 sounds sound like real instruments. My wife who's totally against these gadgets, was visibly impressed when she heard the piano sound coming out of my guitar's amp. This GR-55 is just amazing. You gotta get it!

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